Jail for Bowen Basin miner's brazen rape of a sleeping woman

26th Feb 2020 4:36 PM
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A YOUNG woman who had been sleeping next to her boyfriend in a Rockhampton motel room was the victim of an "opportunistic and extremely brazen" rape.

Her attacker had been invited inside the room earlier that night as they all drank with mutual friends, but passed out in a chair. The woman and offender were not known to each other and had met through friends.

About 4am the woman's boyfriend took a shower to aid his insomnia issues, leaving his girlfriend in a deep sleep in a single bed in the room at The Criterion Hotel.

This is when Andrew Thomas Coyne, 26, took the opportunity to rape the young woman until she woke up and pushed him off her.

The racehorse breaker and Bowen Basin miner has been jailed for six years after being found guilty of rape by a jury after a four day trial in the Rockhampton District Court.

Crown prosecutor Will Slack said Coyne had shown no remorse for his conduct.

"The offending could be described as opportunistic and extremely brazen," he said.

"He violated a young woman who was asleep in a bed in her own hotel room."

Judge Michael Burnett said it was unquestionable that rape was a violent offence.

"The fact that you went to trial is evident there is an absence of remorse," he said.

Judge Burnett said Coyne did not attempt to decamp after the alarm was raised.

Defence solicitor Doug Winning said his client was "seriously affected by alcohol which impacted his cognitive thinking".

"He didn't seek to detain her when she got up out of bed and raised the alarm," he said.

"This event would not have occurred except for his extreme intoxication."

The court heard Coyne had started drinking early in the afternoon with friends who moved on to drinking at The Cri at night before a group went to the motel room where the rape took place.

Coyne passed out in a chair in the room and others left while those that were staying in the room went to bed.

Mr Winning said his client didn't drink regularly, but when he does, it's so much that it was problematic.

He said Coyne did not have a criminal record, had worked at properties at Clarke Creek and Moranbah, and was ­working in the Bowen Basin mining industry before his sentence.

He said he also broke in race horses, which he had done with his father when he left school at 15.

Mr Winning said Coyne had a good relationship with his parents, along with older brothers and sister, and his father was dying in Rockhampton Hospital due to bowel cancer, heart problems and fluid on the brain.

Judge Burnett sentenced Coyne to six years prison with parole eligibility on February 23, 2023. One day pre-sentence custody was declared as time served.